drabble prompts: SHEIK: 'Break Me'
"Are you afraid?"
Sheik gave no response.
"You are not afraid?"
"No."
"What are you, then?" the voice inquired. It was muffled. It came from the other side of the wall. The sound of chains clinking faintly as its owner adjusted herself in her cell accompanied it.
"Do not bother me with your questions any longer." Sheik closed his eyes, yearning for the sort of darkness he achieved when he did so. In pitch, in shadow, he felt free. Here he was captive. They'd managed to return him to this prison multiple times now, stopped as soon as he'd escaped. He breathed. The voice across the wall breathed.
"I am angry."
He breathed. She breathed. They breathed together, though apart.
"Why?"
"Do you really need to ask?!" The words were low in volume, but spat with the cutting crispness of ice.
"Yes."
The young man grunted unintentionally in frustration. The sound echoed through the hall. He did not wish to express himself because he could not find the words to do so. Those words were locked away in a part of his brain he had given himself strict orders to never open. Nothing was free anymore. The last thing he wanted to be was exposed, too. He rested his head against his shoulder, feeling hair brush against his skin where his cowl once did. The threadbare uniform he now wore was as handcuffs, and more disorienting than the actual items bracing his tensed wrists.
"May I tell you something?" The woman's voice faultered, caught in her throat at the end.
"Judith, you have been unusually talkative for days. Who am I to stop you now."
All was quiet, save for their breathing. Suddenly, the sound of doors swinging and many footsteps pervaded the air. Sheik listened to the scene unfold: Doors swinging open, restraints releasing, a short power struggle. They were taking her, laughing. Where, or for what purpose, none could say. As soon as the shuffling had started, it ended. It was silent again, minus one.
It was now unsettlingly silent. It was a silence of lacking, stillness save for just one person's breath. It was a silence alone with his thoughts.
"Damn you." He whispered to the wall. "Damn, damn, damn, damn you Judith, what were you going to... say?..."